The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will bring forward proposals to relocate (a) staff and (b) offices of her Department to Brighton; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Alan Duncan
DFID currently has dual UK headquarters in London and Scotland. We have no plans to relocate staff to Brighton.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Murphy on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that there is a renewed focus on the millennium development goals which have not yet been attained.
Justine Greening
Despite remarkable progress, some countries are off-track to meet MDG targets. In response, the Government has increased development assistance to fragile states, driven forward work to help unlock the potential of girls and women and focused more resources on creating the jobs, investment and growth that emerging and frontier markets need to escape poverty.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people are employed full-time solely on accident prevention in (a) his Department and (b) Public Health England.
Jane Ellison
A number of Departmental and Public Health England staff work on areas relevant to accident prevention, but they are employed within teams with wider public health and social care interests rather than being solely employed full-time on accident prevention.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what written correspondence he has had with (a) the Mayor of London and (b) officials from Transport for London within the last 24 months regarding proposed river crossings east of Tower Bridge that are included within the Mayoral Transport Strategy; and how they impact on the options for the proposed Lower Thames Crossing.
Stephen Hammond
The Secretary of State for Transport has regular meetings with the Mayor of London at which a range of London transport measures are discussed. Other Ministers also discuss various London transport issues and projects with senior officials from Transport for London.
The Mayor of London wrote to the then Secretary of State for Transport on 1 June 2012 to request the designation of the proposed Silvertown tunnel as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. The Secretary of State responded on 26 June 2012 outlining her agreement to grant the request.
On 16 July 2013, the Mayor of London wrote to me to respond to the Department’s consultation on the Lower Thames Crossing proposals.
The Department’s review of options for a new Lower Thames Crossing included a sensitivity test to assess whether the proposed Silvertown Crossing scheme would be likely to impact on the forecast flows for the existing Dartford crossing, and any potential new crossing. The conclusion of that test was that the effect was likely to be negligible. The review findings were published in May 2013 as part of consultation on the options.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of history lessons were taught by non-subject specialists in each of the last five years.
Mr David Laws
Information on the percentage of history lessons taught to pupils in years 7 to 13 by non-subject specialists is publicly-available online, and published in the Main Tables at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2010-provisional (Table 14)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2011 (Table 14)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2012 (Table 14)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2013 (Table 13)
Data for 2009 is not available.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Nigerian counterpart on the recent kidnapping of schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria.
Mark Simmonds
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) spoke to the Nigerian Foreign Minister on 18 April when he condemned the abductions and offered UK assistance in securing the release of the schoolgirls.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of maintaining court buildings which are not listed as closed and which had fewer than five cases listed each week for (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months.
Jeremy Wright
Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for a decision on an individual funding request for the prescription of Duodopa to a patient with Parkinson’s disease.
Norman Lamb
Prior to April 2013, primary care trusts were responsible for dealing with individual funding requests and information on individual funding request decisions, or on the time taken to consider such requests, was not collected centrally.
From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.
NHS England has informed us that information on the number of individual funding requests made to NHS England is not currently available. NHS England is improving its data collection mechanisms and aims to improve availability of such information in the future.
NHS England has advised us it aims to inform the requesting clinician of the outcome of the individual funding request panel decision within 40 working days from the date of receipt of a completed request form. There are no plans to collect information on the average time taken for these decisions to be made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he is making to encourage the government of St Lucia to take steps to progress the trial of the defendants accused of murdering Gloria Greenwood.
Mark Simmonds
As soon as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was informed of the death of a British national, consular officials contacted the St Lucian authorities about the investigation into Mrs Greenwood’s tragic death. They remain in regular contact. Most recently, St Lucia’s Crown Prosecution Service informed our officials that a pre-trial hearing had been adjourned until 8 May. We will continue to press upon the St Lucian authorities the importance we place on bringing this case to trial. Consular officials have updated Mrs Greenwood’s family and continue to provide full consular assistance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that governors are disqualified when a school governing body is found guilty of disability discrimination.
Mr Edward Timpson
Regulations set out the circumstances in which a person is disqualified from holding or continuing to hold office as a governor at a maintained school. These include bankruptcy, conviction for an offence carrying a sentence of imprisonment, disqualification from being a company director or charity trustee, and persons whose employment is prohibited or restricted.
The Department for Education has issued advice to school governing bodies on their duties under the Equality Act 2010, including in respect of disability.
It is for governing bodies of state-funded schools to comply with any orders of the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) in relation to claims of disability discrimination.